![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14062020B-01.jpg\")
Bombardier Global 5000 T7-JIS ?a Canadian-made twin-engine \r\nplane, designed to serve the executive market, with a capacity of up to 16 \r\npassengers, depending on its arrangement? arrived on March 8 in Tehran, the \r\ncapital of Iran, and two days later, it was back in Caracas, according to \r\nArmando.info with the help of Bellingcat, an electronic media company \r\nspecializing in open source investigations and forensic journalism. Indeed, the \r\nair bridge between Venezuela and Iran speeded up in the last few weeks, while \r\nMaduro closed the purchase of Iranian fuel in exchange for Venezuelan gold, \r\naccording to Bloomberg agency.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Moreover, sources familiar with the operation also confirmed \r\nthe presence of Alex Saab in Iran shortly before the agreement was \r\nmade.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Before that trip, Bombardier T7-JIS was on Colombian \r\nterritory, certainly without Saab as a passenger, as the authorities have been \r\nlooking for him there since late 2018. This week, which just ended, they froze \r\nassets valued at around ten million dollars, including an eight million dollar \r\nmansion in Barranquilla, his hometown. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Last February, the same plane, the T7-JIS, crossed from \r\nMaiquetia to Moscow, where Chavismo<\/I> \r\nhas found another financial point to evade U.S. sanctions. At that time, at \r\nleast on the return trip from the Russian capital, there was also a stop in Cape \r\nVerde, where Alex Saab is now under arrest.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14062020B-02.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>The same Bombardier Global 5000 T7-JIS that landed on June 12, 2020, in Cape Verde, took him earlier to Iran and Russia<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14062020B-03.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>The same Bombardier Global 5000 T7-JIS that landed on June 12, 2020, in Cape Verde, took him earlier to Iran and Russia<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nThis is not the only aircraft that Alex Saab or his partner \r\nAlvaro Pulido Vargas used while hatching their business with Chavismo<\/I>. If there is one thing they \r\nhave done in recent years, it is to travel to where they created companies and \r\nmade financial movements ?Antigua and Barbuda, Russia, \r\nTurkey and, more recently, African countries, such as Cape Verde \r\nitself.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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Claps\u2019 Flight Plan<\/h2>\n\n\n
Between 2017 and 2018, Alex Saab and Alvaro Pulido travelled \r\nin at least two other planes, N259FG and N456JA. Both aircraft landed at Mexican \r\nairports before the Attorney General\u2019s Office of that country announced, in \r\nOctober 2018, an investigation against Group Grand Limited, the Hong Kong \r\nregistered company whereby the Colombian tandem won at least two food supply \r\ncontracts for about $800 million. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
On May 11, 2017, for example, the aircraft with registration \r\nNo. N456JA arrived at the Toluca International Airport in the state of Mexico. \r\nAlex Saab was on board together with Shadi Nain Saab Certain, one of the sons of \r\nthe businessman who appeared in the registration papers of Group Grand Limited \r\nin Hong Kong, the company whereby they began supplying food for the Claps. \r\nAlvaro Pulido Vargas\u2019 flights to that terminal and others in Mexico were \r\nfrequent in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14062020B-04.jpg\")
Turkey, another country where Saab and its partners have registered companies to maintain their business with Chavism, has also been a frequent destination.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n A year later, in 2018, aircraft N259FG flew several times to \r\nTurkey. That year, the Colombian businessmen began to use this country with \r\ncompanies registered there, like Mullberry Proje Yatirim, a as a supplier for \r\nthe Claps\u2019 food, while Nicolas Maduro was strengthening his political and \r\ncommercial relationship with Turkish warlord Recep Tayip Erdogan. At this time, \r\nthey also started to use companies registered in the United Arab Emirates, such \r\nas Asasi Food FZE, which also won contracts worth millions for the supply of \r\nClap boxes or medicines. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The documents obtained by Armando.info confirm that between \r\nGroup Grand Limited and Asasi Food FZE alone, the contracts awarded by the \r\nstate-owned Corpovex from 2016 to 2018 amounted to $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14062020B-05.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\nThe N259FG aircraft was apparently used for entertainment as \r\nwell. Based on the flight history compiled by this website, the aircraft, for \r\nexample, was in Saint Petersburg and Moscow on July 10 and 11, 2018, \r\nrespectively, coinciding with the dates of the World Cup semi-finals in Russia. \r\nThe plane left the Russian capital to Madrid on July 16, the day after the \r\nfinal, and two days later, continued its flight to the joyful island of Mykonos \r\nin the Aegean Sea of Greece. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic or Paris in France were \r\nother destinations where the N259FG also made frequent stops in 2018. Even \r\nthough Alex Saab\u2019s close bond with Nicolas Maduro was already sounding strongly, \r\nthe Department of the Treasury had not imposed sanctions. After that measure \r\nfrom Washington, the Colombian businessman was also the subject of other legal \r\nproceedings in Europe, such as the one announced by the Italian Guardia di \r\nFinanza in late 2019, which involved the freezing of assets valued at several \r\nmillion euros.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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Maduro\u2019s Agent<\/h2>\n\n\n
The arrest of Alex Saab raised such a dust that the Chavista<\/I> regime, which avoided for years \r\nmentioning the Colombian man, issued on Saturday a statement in his defense, \r\nwhich is also revealing. In the text, released by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza \r\nless than 24 hours after Saab\u2019s apprehension, he is described as a \u201cVenezuelan \r\ncitizen,\u201d elevated to the status of \u201cagent of the Bolivarian Government of \r\nVenezuela.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Armando.Info could confirm that Alex Saab is the bearer of \r\nVenezuelan identity card No. 21.495.350, and also has a Tax Information Registry \r\n(RIF) in the Venezuelan tax agency. For years, Saab also had a sort of a \r\ndiplomatic passport from Antigua and Barbuda, facilitated by the Prime Minister \r\nof that country, Gaston Browne - an ally of the Bolivarian revolution - as soon \r\nas he took office in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
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